guest ::
| Home > Publications database > Assessment of changes in the electro-optical performance of Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM) modules after irradiation with cold neutrons |
| Home > Publications database > Assessment of changes in the electro-optical performance of Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM) modules after irradiation with cold neutrons |
| Book/Report/Master Thesis | FZJ-2017-07637 |
2017
Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH Zentralbibliothek, Verlag
Jülich
Please use a persistent id in citations: http://hdl.handle.net/2128/16234
Report No.: Juel-4404
Abstract: The detection and measurement of neutrons are vital in a wide range of fields including homeland security, radiation protection and scientific research. Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) experiments have become important techniques in the investigation of the material properties on the atomic scale. For a long period $^{3}$He based detectors were extensively used for neutron detection in these experiments, but due to the scarcity of $^{3}$He, researchers started to look for alternatives. Scintillation based solid state detectors appeared as a prominent alternative. A neutron scattered by a sample under test impinges a scintillating material and initiates a nuclear reaction that produces secondary particles which in a second scattering process generate a light emission that can be detected by an underlying photodetector. By determining the neutron scattering angle, the momentum transfer of the scattered neutron can be identified. Using this information the investigated sample structure can be determined with very high spatial resolution. These experiments using scintillation based detectors rely on efficient detection of photons, hence on the performance of photodetectors. Silicon photomultipliers (SiPM), having lower bias voltages compared to photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), being able to operate in high magnetic fields, offering the possibility of modular design, and yielding higher readout rates have the potential to become a photon detector of choice in these experiments. The concern regarding SiPMs to be used in these experiments is especially their neutron radiation hardness. When exposed to the neutron irradiation, the amount of defects caused by the impinging neutrons increases the dark count rate and diminishes the photon detection efficiency in the SiPM.In order to study the performance degradation of SiPMs due to neutron irradiation, three different SiPM modules (two analog SiPM arrays provided by manufacturers $\textit{SensL}$ and $\textit{Hamamatsu Corporation}$ and one digital array by $\textit{Philips Digital Photon Counting GmbH}$), were irradiated at the KWS-1 instrument of the $\textit{Heinz Maier-Leibniz (MLZ)}$ research reactor in Garching, Germany with cold neutrons having a 5$\mathring{A}$ wavelength. The scope of this work is to perform a quantitative comparison of the photodetection efficiency (PDE) for these SiPM technologies before and after irradiation with cold neutrons and assess the feasibility of the SiPM as the technology of choice for scintillation-based photodetectors.
; 
|
The record appears in these collections: |
PDF
PDF (PDFA)